The Tale of the Missing Futons

After much prompting from my parents and Mack, and a lazy Sunday afternoon, I've finally sat down to make another entry. I can't promise the grandeur of Mack's posts, but I'll try to have a few less spelling errors :P

So now for my first story...The Tale of the Missing Futons!!!!!! Dun dun dun!!!!


Tuesday morning, Mack and I get checked in to the campus apartments, all paperwork squared away for the time being. I happily inspect my new home in Global Village I-104, complete with shower/bath, toilet, and kitchenette. And a lofted bed to call my own. A very naked bed at that... But thoughts of that are pushed aside as I put my luggage down for the thankfully final time that day, and wonder when my roommate will arrive.

An hour later or so, I see dear Mack being escorted to his own apartment with his luggage, and rush outside to meet/follow him. (Unfortunately I think I kind of scared away the Japanese student who was helping him.) Lucky for us, our apartments are on "blocks" next to each other, him in J-208, all of 50 feet away from mine.



We hike up the stairs to his second floor apartment and...wait a minute. There is a giant bundle of stuff on his bed. And his roommate's. According to the receipt laying on it, the pile includes his futon, blankets, pillow, and sheets. On top of that, there is a desk lamp on each of the desks! I didn't have one of those!

At this point, I'm a bit confused, but I decide my bedding must just not have been delivered yet. It's only about 11am. No worries.

Later that afternoon...I return to my room, and begin to unpack. Earlier I had found a binder in my desk drawer, full of manuals on using the different equipments of the kitchen and bathroom. Of course it's all in Japanese... Anyways, I had pushed it aside earlier, but now, upon opening it what do I find? Two receipt papers for bedding... dun dun dun!

That evening, my new (and awesome) roommate Lee (from Korea) and I still don't have sheets. Finally I set out to find out where we can get some. Mack and I started at the res hall maintenance window, then end up using two other students as translators when the employee doesn't understand us (or maybe he wasn't sure how to say the answer in English? Not sure. Either way, translation problems). The students then take us to the Kiosk (convenience store on campus), where apparently the bedding rentals come from. There we happen to meet up with Lee, only to discover that apparently neither of us paid for rental sheets! Neither of us are sure how this happened, certain that we paid all the fees Akita asked.

The lady at the Kiosk tells us we can come back in the morning and rent bedding for the semester...but what to do for tonight?! The mattresses are brick-hard, at least a pillow would be necessary to sleep on it. Mack offers to split up his bedding with us. Thankfully, it does not come to that. Because it's orientation week, the international student affairs office is open late, and one girl suggests we go there. So we go, and from there things get sorted out quickly. Lee and I had indeed paid the fee, which was included in the large payment to Akita. In fact, someone would bring us bedding that very night by car. I'm still not sure what happened, a lot of it was in Japanese at that point, but I recognize a chorus of "gomen nasai" ("very sorry") when I hear one.

So we come to the end of the tale. Someone brought both our bedding sets within the hour right to our door. And the answer to the mystery? Well, the man who brought our bedding in the end said that he was certain he had brought it here before. So option 1: It got delivered to the wrong place. Slight error, but in the end, no problem. Or option 2: Somebody stole them. Unfortunate for us, but someone lucky out there has a double, possibly triple-padded futon.

Lee also managed, by chance, to get us the desk lamps a day later. Who knows what happened there...



Also, we each have a safe that came with our room. Mine had a sock in it :/

I love Japan.

- Jessi

My New Totoro Bentou Box

It makes me happy.

-Mack

Dance Party

Yesterday I found a note on my door inviting my to a sort of dance party. Every door had one. Jessi and I decided to go, and we found a pretty awkward mix of international students and Japanese students.

I was a little worried as we watched an American student attempt to teach a Japanese student what freak dancing was. However, the next some was the Macarena and that was common ground for everyone. There was a very clear division of Japanese Students and International Students, but Jessi and I tried to interact with the Japanese students as much as possible.



It was actually pretty standard for a dance. Groups of people forming circles and moving a little to the left and a little to the right. At first I was nervous, but after a while I busted out my own paticular brand of embarrising dance moves.

We had a break dance circle and noone knew how to breack dance, I did a couple awkward moves from John Travolta, and Jessi and I did a couple dance moves. A couple international studnts did some interesting moves, and a few Japanese students tried to embarrass each other by dragging them to the center.

The highlight of the evening though was a unique kind of communication with a japanese student. I did a little bit of hand raving, and I tried to teach a couple Japanese girls how to do it. A Japanese guy saw me doing it, and mimiced my hand motions and then shot an energy beam at me. I dodged it, but he kept at it with another barrage. One clipped my shoulder but I retaliated with my own blast of energy. I missed, and he began to dodge and weave between people. I couldn't get a clear shot, he feinged to the left and hit me square in the chest with a hadoken which sent me reeling. He tried to follow it up, but I dodged with a forward roll across the floor and out of the circle. We got some laughs and applause, and gave awkward bows.

All in all felt pretty good about it. Lost a whole lot of dignity, but still pretty cool.

-Mack

Aeon Mall Trip

Yesterday was our first trip to AEON Mall. For those who dont know, Akita is a very rural area of japan, rice paddies, mountains, and forests. Extremely pretty, but very much removed from the bustle of places like Tokyo. However, there is a large comercial district about 20 minutes away, centered on a place called AEON Mall.



The building is huge, and I need to spend a lot more time documenting it's interior. There's a movie theater, 2 food courts, a four level department store, tons of clothing stores, a dollar store (college students' salvation), and an arcade ( omg omg omg omg omg).

I will have to spend a day at that arcade, and after that day I will be able to better describe the glory that is Japanese video games. We explored for about four hours, shopped a bunch for the essentials and got food at a little udon shop.



I actually had a pleasant exchange with the people who worked there. I asked a couple questions in Japanese and the woman there happily answered them. I also asked a girl there what they call chives in Japanese (she was putting chives on my udon). I she said neji (which I pronounced correctly only after several tries), and she asked me what we call them in English. She had as hard a time saying chives as I did of neji. A good time was had by all.

The Goods
Now to describe our shoppscapade.



The majority of the stuff we got was from the dollar store. Chop sticks, I got a nice pair of cooking chopsticks, wastepaper basket, dish towel, clothes hangers, and I got myself a pretty nice looking knife. I picked a midrange priced one, because I wanted a nice knife, but I was still shopping at the dollar store, so their nicest knife would probably still be pretty dull.

We also stopped by a "novelty shop" which is a terrible way to describe it. It was more of a tiny one room version of Bed, Bath, and Beyond, it was called "Three Minute Happiness". I got pan here, it's a nice one with a wooden handle. The metal on it isn't terribly thick, but it's still a nice pan. I also got a couple wooden spoons, they're very smooth and well shaped. Jessi got a little steel teapot here, it's really cute.

Our next big area of shopping was the grocery store. I forgot to mention the grocery store. There's a grocery store, it's attached to the mall, it's pretty cool. We got a lot of the basic food stuffs here, noodles, soy sauce, sesame oil, orange juice, soap, and laundry detergent.

We also decided to buy a bottle of wine to celebrate. Since you know, we can, because the drinking age in Japan is 20. They had a very pleasant little alchohol selection. Actually a pretty decent selection, I had thought that liquor beyond sake would be a little harder to find, yet I stood before a pretty solid selection of wine from the Napa Valley. They also had vodka and rum in . . .20 liter bottles? From the floor they reached up higher than the knees and were wider around than Jessi. There were at least 100 of these sort of bottles. In anycase we'd already decided on a red wine, for cooking as well as drinking, so we went with a Sutter Hill Merlot from California. (No bottle opener as of yet though)

Finally we decided to get the rest of our stuff at the department store. I needed a wash cloth, and some bowls. What I found though really made me happy though, a "My Neighbor Totoro Bentou box. It's so cool, it's got two compartments and little dividers for a variety of foods. I also got a blue mug, cause I needed something to drink from. So far I had used cash for everyting, so when we went to the counter I wanted to give my debit card a shot.

I figured there'd be trouble, but it wasn't busy so I wanted to try my best to make this interaction work. He rang me up, I gave him my card, he slid it through the machine and asked me, "ikkai? nikai? sankai?" which translates to "one time, two times, three times?" This provided me with quite a quandry.

Is he asking me if I want it all together, or if I want each thing rung up seperately? That didn't make a whole lot of sense. He'd given me back my card, did he need to slide it through another time? I offered him the card again, but that didn't seem to be the right response. He got an associate to come over, who had a little book with english notes in it. I apologized for my bad japanese, but they remained gregarious. "Do you want to pay, one time? two times? three times?" He told me in english.

Something was off about that. Obviously that was what they were saying in Japanese, I knew that much, but why would I want to pay for something more than once? If you paid for something twice you would be out twice as much money.

A Japanese woman nearby offered her abilties in English, and asked the manager what was going on in Japanese. he explained to her in japanese, and I got, "how many times do you want to pay?"

At first this made about as much sense, and then it clicked. They were asking about payments! How many payments would I like to make. It's a department store, and Japanese department stores still offer customers the ability to pay in multiple instalments. "Do you want to pay multiple times" is a lot like "Do you want to make multiple payments?"

I'm suprised I didn't get it sooner, but I wasn't expecting a multiple payment plan. But now I am, and if I ever get into the circumstance again, I'll know how to react.
Just goes to show that sometimes you just gotta be patient and try you best to work things out without getting flustered.

Summer Rain

Big storm tonight. Didn't think they'd get that intense here.

Placement Test and an Interesting Class

The results of my placement test? The results of 3 years of highschool Japanese?


-Japanese 102-

I'm not terribly suprised, nor am I terribly dissappointed. I got a step above 101 which means skipping the alphabet, basic greetings, and the te form song. It's been a while since I've had a language class, so I'm fine with easing back into that sort of rythm.

But! Getting into 102 makes me eligible for "Independant Japanese Practice" an additional 1 credit on top of Japanese 102. Japanese 169 apparently is an independant study of Japanese on any topic of my choosing. I would meet with an advisor once a week, and check up with them and show them the sort of work I've done.

Now I see here an opportunity. When I came to Japan I decided to leave my board games and card games at home because I didn't know how to translate them into Japanese. However, if I have a professor helping me, I could do research into Japanese board games (I'm assuming they have some) as well as video games (I know they have those) and work with translating them back and forth.

I asked the woman in charge of the department about this after she'd given a small presentation, and she seemed keen on the idea. Apparently manga translations are a popular choice, I hope I can make mine more practical.

We'd come up with syllabi ourselves with help from our advisor. If I could learn enough Japanese to explain a board game or explain controls in a video game, this trip will be invaluable to my abilities as a designer.


-A Word of Encouragement-

To all my friends in college, and to all my friends who have a multitude of resources around you. Never be afraid of putting forth any sort of crazy schemes, or creative endeavors to the people around you. Not only are people willing to help, but many will have idea's and enthusiasm that will help you succeed in ways you never thought possible.

Not always, but more often than you think.

The Student Body of Akita

In a glance this is a pretty good view of the student population here at AIU. There are still about 100 Japanese students missing and a small group of international students are missing, but in this video you see roughly 75% of the student population (about 500 students all told)



There will be far better video of induviduals later but I want to give you the brief version of people I've met.

00:03
-Boy in light Blue Dress Shirt- His name is David, he's from France, a business student, very gregarious.

-Next to David, Grey Dress Shirt- I've forgot his name, but he's from Kentucky. We've talked a bit in the various orientation events we've been in together. A easy going guy.

00:05
-Two guys in foreground- They're from Mongolia, and again I've forgotten their names. The guy on the left is into scifi, we talked a good while about Enders Game. He's an internation diplomacy student, and a little shy; very cool though he reminds me a lot of people back home. The guy on the right, is from the same school, and a little more assertive. Very courtous and engaging.

-Girl in White dirrectly behind Mongolian Guy- Wow I get to show off how terrible I am with names. She's from . . . oh man this is bad, somewhere in the USA. Uh . . . uh . . . she seems nice and wants to buy a electronic dictionary.

-Girl in Purple next to her- Erica! HAH. She's from . . . somewhere. USA. But her name is Erica. She's very nice, very enthusiastic, and enthralled with North Korea. I don't judge. . . Ok I judge a little that seems a little crazy. She fangirl-ed out with Jessi about Big Bang theory. So she's alright in my book.

00:08
-Girl in light blue shirt 3 rows back- Jessi!! Jessi who is awesome and I love her.

00:10
-Guy in red shirt and black jacket down a row from Jessi- Cyrus from Oregon. We've met a bunch of people from Oregon already. Cyrus is pretty cool, seems to know a lot about japanese cultur, he's staying here for a year.

-Guy below Cyrus with a Gree shirt with a line- Robert, I think he's from Oregon. Very easy going but I havn't had much of a chance to meet him.

-Girl way in the back with bright red hair- Bekah. From New Mexico. She seems nice and has very red hair. She's been in a few of my orientation groups and we've swapped a bunch of stories.

00:15
-Girl with black hair way in the back with her head in hr hand- Lauren (Ren) from . . . somewhere in the USA. She seems very enthusiastic but in a calm way. Jessi, Ren, and Erica seemed to really get along and went out exploring one night.


Hmmm in going through looking for people that seemed like there were a lot more missing than I thought. There's still only about 500 students, but this video only looks like about half of them.

Again I will introduce you more people in more depth later, but so you know we've met some french canadians, people from the UK, a russian, people from korea, singapore, and laos. A girl from taiwan seemed very nice, I'm not sure how her english is, but we had a nice conversation in Japanese.


Where are the Japanese Kids?


I seem to be introducing only the international students, and it's true I've spent more time with them than the fulltime Japanese students. It makes me feel kinda like I'm not doing a good enough job trying to interact with the Japanese.

However, I have been making an effort, but being here for only 3 days thusfar, I realize that it is much easier to make a lasting connection with an international student than a Japanese student. The bond of a shared circumstance, being moved from one country to another, is almost instantaneos. I am not discouraged, though, about meeting Japanese students. I will do my best to put myself ou there, and I hope that as time goes on I will have made lasting friends in a variety of cultures and languages.

Day 3, Japan Orientation Paralysis

Orientation Paralysis
So after a long day of orientation, the prospect of free time feels mildly paralyzing. It'll wear of in a moment, but after a day of placement tests, forms, and sticking to a schedule, all of a sudden you feel like a puppet with its strings cut and fall to the floor.


Placement Test
Today we took the Placement test to determine which Japanese class we would be put into. I went into it pretty stress free, because while I would like to get into JL 201, I'm not going to be heartbroken if I end up having to relearn hiragana in 101. The test was pretty difficult, but I figured they go up to 500 level classes, so it has to be.

The first section was listening, we got some pretty basic dirrections, but the more specific dirrections were in Japanese. This threw off a lot of kids who were either really nervous, or didn't know Japanese at all. Probably a few people that didn't make the connection that we would hear a conversation, and then get asked a question, all in Japanese. I was pretty proad of myself to know at least what the question was asking, but I was nowhere quick enough to get the answer to the question. They were pretty tricky too, a lot of the questions were of the category of "what sport does Dan like?" and the conversation would talk about the sports that he played, and the sports his sister played, and the sports his friend liked, and the sports he didn't like. Multiple choice helped a lot. I felt confident on maybe 2 out of my 8 answers

The second section was multiple choice grammar. Which I really dove into. We had an hours to complete a section of grammar and a section of kanji. After the listening I was glad to see sentence structures that I knew every word of. I felt pretty good through about half the questions of the first section when I checked my watch and it slapped me in the face and said, "Fifteen minutes slowpoke, goodluck finishing hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha" So I got maybe 3/4 of the grammar section done and didn't even bother with the kanji.

The third section was reading comprehension and essay. . . hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Yeah I'm nowhere near that level just yet. It was like those SAT questions, but all in Japanese. I understood some basic principles but when the kanji dont have furigana (little translations in hiragana above them) I'm pretty stumped.
My essay wasn't bad though. They pretty much said, "the topic is Study Abroad, go to town." I tried to be a little too fancy for my own good, and kept writing myself into corners, where in order to explain myself I needed to use phrases that I just didn't know in Japanese. Basically I tried to say how I liked writing and wanted to write books, and that my experiance in Japan would help give me inspiration and life experiance nessecary for an author.

It came out more like "Good books want good people and good places, there are good people and good places in Japan therefore I like study abroad" creative? yes. basicallly what I wanted to say? yes. eloquent? hell no. understandible? maybe? not sure.


You Cant fight City Hall
After the placement test we went to get our papers validated by the Japanese government. There is a government building (I assume City Hall) about 5 minutes away. Which was actually really uneventful. We had a chaperone Mike, help us all out a lot. He's American and a employee of the university, he's got excellent organization skills but is constantly a little frantic. Not much of a story there except that a government employee knew enough english for my name to confuse him.

Mackenzie Bradford Cameron. Each part of my name is interchangeable, in fact I know a Cameron Mack at Ithaca. On top of the fact that in Japan you put your family name first. So he'd assumed I'd gotten it backwards on a specific sheet, but he caught on pretty quick after he saw my passport.

Some people would consider it an inconveniance, but I find it pretty cool, because it actually lends itself to minor cloaking in terms of paperwork if I decide to do anything south of legal (in America or Japan). Not enough to get away with anything thats for sure, but it would be a very very slight advantage.



Tommarrow is academic orientation, and then after that is mostly free. We'll see what mischief I can get myself into when I'm off the leash.

-Cameron

Akita Dorm Room Theater

I'm a dork

Our First Morning in Akita

The view from Plaza Kypton at 5:00 AM

Upon Arrival

After we landed in Japan, it was hot, it was humid, bright, and something like midnight for us. Not only that but as we landed on Japanese soil, we still had another leg of the trip to go.



Fortunately, upon arriving in Akita we were both in much higher spirits. Jessi was very cheerful and optomistic after we got off the bus. It's been a good enthusiastic trip thusfar.

Arrival

I've been in Japan for about 24 hours and already I feel like I have so much to tell.

The Plane Ride
The flight was a long 12 hours over the Pacific. Suprisingly I only watched one movie, T.R.Y., a japanese about China in the 20's I think . . . 40's, I'm not sure. Actually what I found myself doing most was playing the video games they offered on the plane. The actually had a decent collection, and the control panel popped out of the armrest as a controller. Jessi slept for the first section of the journey, and I played Space Invaders (or the airline equivalent). It was nice to have her there though, plane rides can be very lonely.

Landing in Tokyo
We got off the plane a little late with only about 3 hours to get though customs, get our bags, and get to Haneda Airport. We were decidedly nervous about Jessi's medicine, since, if she were a drug dealer, she could have tried to smuggle a fortune of pill shaped recreational drugs into Japan. She had quite of deal of paperwork with her, and her and her mom had already put hours and hours into sending the appropriae documents to Japan. Here's the thing, they didn't even stop her. We went right through customs like we were diplomats, the guy checked our passports, and didn't seem at all concerned with looking in our bags. We were worried about making the 8:15 bus, we ended up getting on the 6:15 bus. No problem with baggage, no problem getting a bus ticket, no problem catching the bus.

Bus Ride to Haneda
I consider it a privelege and an honor to be able to visit Japan, so it bugs me a little bit when I find people here in Japan that perpetuate the image of the terrible american tourist. We got on the bus, easy, but there weren't two seats together so Jessi and I sat across from the aisle of each other. I sat next to a kid with a black shirt, crew cut hair, and tatoo's on the inside of his arms. He had a scowl on his face, and mumbled at intervals things like "this place stinks" etc. When the bus started, it began to play some soothing japanese music, to which he replied, "fuck this, hope my ipod'll last the trip" This is the man I shared an bus with, and I don't know why he's in Japan. By then Jessi and I were pretty exhausted from the flight, the japanese countrysde was gorgeous, but I was pretty much ready to just pass out.

Departing from Haneda
I went to the wrong terminal, couldn't get the automatic machine to work, and nearly knocked over a pair of japanese people. Other than that we got tickets, checked our bags, went through security easy as though we were in John Wayne Airport. On the other side of the security checkpoint, I got some mini-sandwiches, served on sweet bread. I would've gotten a picture, but again, I was dog tired. We got on the plane, and again no problem about Jessi's drugs.

Flying to Akita
The Flight to Akita is the only one that Jessi and I aren't next to each other on. It's only an hour flight, and we we're just ready to have a bed. I sat next to a japanese man in his 50's, and after some shaky pleasantries, we actually hit it off very well. He asked me about my trip here to Japan, and I asked him about his life, and about Japan. His english was very good, except for a variety of nouns that he couldn't remember; I did me best in terms of japanese, which I think put him at ease a little bit. After we had begun our decent, he told me something, and wanted to impress it very clearly on me, to make sure I understood. It seemed very important that I know this.

"The Japanese people are very shy people, but they are very kind"

He told me that often times even when a person looks like they need help, Japanese people won't offer to help them. But if a person asks for help, Japanese people will help them no matter what you need help with and no matter what they were doing. I've found this before when I've heard from friends who asked a person for dirrections to Japan, and that person actually went with them to where they were going, despite the fact that it can be quite a ways a way.

I still can't be sure why this man, Toshiki, wanted me to know this piece of information. did he want me to know that whenever I needed help I could ask for it? Was he attempting to defend a part of Japanese life that to some would come across as aloofness? Or was he perhaps reaching out to me, telling me that the Japanese people are very shy, and that I should do my best to interact with people in such a way that puts them at ease so that I may form strong relationships with them.

He was a very inquisitive person, and he took out a map and told me about a variety of places around Akita. More than that, he inspired in me a bit of introspection. Thank you Toshiki.

Akita
We got off the plane, and this time it was knowing that this was our final destination. We got our bags, went outside, there was a taxi just waiting there, for whatever reason. We approached him, he helped us put our bags in his trunk. We told him "Plaza Crypton" and he knew right where that was. We slept good that night.



Just for the record here's a lit of things we thought would go wrong

-Wouldn't get visa's in time (we got 'em with time to spare)
-Mack forgets something at home (didn't happen)
-Plane delayed or canceled (on time)
-Jessi's meds would get stuck in Security in LA (no problem)
-Jessi's medical forms would get stuck in Immigration (didn't even ask her for them)
-Jessi's meds would get stuck in Customs in Narita (didn't go through our bags)
-Our bags would go missing (they were like 2nd on the carosel)
-We would miss the bus to Haneda (easy)
-Miss our flight to Akita (2 hours early)
-Jessi's meds would get stuck in Security in Haneda (not likely)
-Our bags wouldn't show up in Akita (thank goodness)
-We wouldn't get transportation to Plaza Crypton (it was just waiting there)
-We wouldn't get into our rooms at the Plaza Crypton (it was easy)

It's so easy it almost makes me frustrated that we sank so much time into making sure everything worked out. Almost. Because overprepared is a bazillion times better than underprepared. You can get to a plane 5 hours early, but you can't be five minutes late.


-Mack

Departure

The biggest step, it seems, is packing up my laptop for travel to Japan, after I've put my laptop away I no longer have a means to dilly dally. When it's away there'll be no more websites to check, no more mailbox to revisit while knowing they'll still be empty, and no more blog entries to write until I land in Japan.

I will miss a lot, and worry a lot. Especially for my parents, but this is an amazing opportunity that I simply cannot pass up. I will give this trip everything I have to ensure it's really worth everything that's gone into it thusfar.

I pray for a safe flight, and easy transfers, wish me luck.

And so it begins . . .

Packing for the Trip

We're looking at less than 24 hours until our flight leaves for Japan. So I figured now would be a good time to pack. Our flight allows for 2 checked bags, a carry-on, and a personal item (laptop case for me) Both Jessi and myself have agree'd to my dads advice for this trip, fly there with 1 suitcase, fly back with 2.

If you need something you can always buy it in Japan, and then it'll also be something you bought in Japan. In reality though I'm finding it difficult to fill 1 suitcase. Clothes are a must, I'm bringing enough to prevent myself from becoming naked. I'm also bringing plenty of writing materials, as well as all my study materials for Japanese. I'll be spending a good deal of time reading those on the plane.

My laptop is coming, along with a CD case filled with movies. There's a small cadre of electronics, ipod, video camera, regular camera, headphones, mini speakers. I'm not bringing my cell phone however, international fee's being obscene. I plan to try and live for 4 months without a cell phone, we'll see how that works. If I can't cut it, I'll buy a pay-as-you-go cell phone there.

Other than that, the rest of what I'm bringing are trinkets, generally negligible in weight. Most important, however, is passport, wallet, and id. Everything else I can get into Japan without . . . theoretically anyway.

Behold the Zi6

The first of many video communications.





I may have overdone it.

-Mack

Forms and Feet

I figured it was about time I post something on here.

So California in 6 days, Japan in 15.  I've submitted my Visa application, and all my paperwork has been sent to Akita!

My one word of advice to any future travelers.  If you have to take a lot of prescription medications, Japan might not be the first place on your world tour to go.  I currently take a few meds (about 7...different types).  Anyways, as it turned out, traveling with said meds to Japan is a lot more complex than the school made it seem.

After doing some research, my mom found a whole series of forms that have to be sent (snail mailed!) to the Japanese government, detailing my medical conditions, treatments, and medications.  This resulted in 70 pages of paperwork being sent from Germantown, MD to Tokyo, Japan, all about my pills. :)  Fun.

So now we wait for them to send back approval.  That way I won't get my meds taken away from me at customs, or worse, not be allowed to leave customs myself!

~~~~

On another note, Mack asked me today if I had "inside shoes".  In Japan, you do not generally enter a house in your shoes.  Instead you take them off by the door and put on house slippers.  I knew that much before, but apparently it extends to some public and commercial buildings as well.  

So I guess I'll be on the look out for some slip-on shoes to carry around with me to change into.  I'm also probably going to have to find them here, since the chances of finding shoes in a women's size 11 most likely decreases dramatically once I reach Japan.  (Boo big feet...)

They also have seperate shoes for the bathroom, by the way.  Random trivia. :)

- Jessi

Visa and Documentation

So two weeks before I begin my travel to Japan, I get the paperwork necessary to complete the Visa application. Good thing it only takes three days to get a Visa at the consulate in L.A. It takes four days in DC.

~What you need to get an Extended Stay Visa ~
-A valid passport
-A certificate of Eligibility
(completed by someone or an organization you know in Japan)
-A Completed Visa Form

The process was pretty easy for me. For more information check out the Japanese Consulate Website

In other news

I have a new camera.



Not just a camera, but the Kodak Zi6 Digital Video Camera. I sort of going away present from my dad. I'll upload some video soon, but it is a very slick piece of hardware.



4 settings. Photo, VGA, HD, and HD 60

It takes normal pictures, 3 megapixel, pretty good considering my previous camera was only four. Drawbacks, no flash, limited zoom. Then again, I'm not exactly producing art here, I just want to document my trip, so it exceeds my needs as a camera.

It has three video settings, VGA low res, HD high res, and HD60 high res high framerate. The quality of the video on this thing is excellent. The microphone isn't half bad either. The files are stored as .MOV files, and the camera interfaces with the computer via USB. Easy drag and drop transfer, and it even comes with software to upload the videos quickly and easily to youtube. Very convenient.

On my Gig SD card, I've reached about 15 minutes for the memory to fill up on HD60. That drained the batteries a bit, it runs off AA, and came with a couple rechargables and a charger. Pretty good for $160. A solid investment for my dad, who wants to see every step of my adventure in Japan.

I'll be posting the first video soon, with many more to come. I'm excited, two weeks to Japan.


-Mack